It Took $15 to Fall in Love

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Having a one-month-old (can you believe it’s already been a month?!) has me kind of sidetracked this year, and I haven’t even given the holiday a second thought until now. But thinking about Valentine’s Day and love and Johnny has me remembering when Johnny and I very first met. Those first several dates laid the groundwork for our relationship.

And let me tell ya, those dates involved very little money. Barely any, in fact. It all began on a Saturday…

Saturday

We Meet: $1Johnny and I met at a theater… a dollar theater. I was on a date… with Johnny’s roommate, if you could even call it a date. It ended up being me and three guys at a movie, and Johnny was one of them. I’d seen Johnny before (we lived in the same apartment building), but we’d never met before that night. Johnny sat to the left of me during the movie, and I liked the smell of his cologne. On the drive home, Johnny hitched a ride with his roommate and he and I chatted it up. This blonde, curly-haired boy had me intrigued.

Sunday

Second Encounter: $4I invited Johnny and his roommates over to my apartment for ice cream and truth-or-dare Jenga. We talked afterward and exchanged numbers.

Monday

Texting: $0Johnny texted me (a new, cool technology!) some clever quip about a test we were both studying for.

Tuesday

First Date: $6Johnny invited me to take a study break and go get shakes at a diner down the street from where we lived. He was very adamant about paying for me, which I saw as a good sign and considered it our first date.

Wednesday

Second Date: $4I invited Johnny to take a study break, so we went and got drinks at 7-Eleven. We sat in his truck for 3 hours and just talked about everything. It was our first time having a deep, meaningful conversation. We talked about our families, what had most affected us in life and made us who we are today.

Thursday

Study Date: $0We met up and studied for a couple hours. Johnny asked me out on an official date for Saturday night. Boom!

Friday

Group Hang Out: $0I hung out with Johnny and his two roommates. I realized that night that I might really like Johnny. And I got home that night convinced that he only saw me as a friend. But before I fell asleep, I got a text from him asking if I wanted to study with him at the library the next morning. He was thinking about me! (I think you know what my response was!)

Saturday Morning

Study Date: $0We studied at the library for a few hours. I’m pretty sure that was the most ineffective study session I’ve ever had. I was so distracted and giddy with the boy sitting across from me that I couldn’t concentrate at all.

Saturday Night

First Official Date: $0We gathered blankets and pillows and drove up to a dark, vacant parking lot near the top of Sundance resort. Johnny kept promising me he wasn’t some creepy dude. He was in an astronomy class and had invited me to go look at the stars with him for an assignment. We laid in the back of his truck and listened to Death Cab for Cutie while we counted shooting stars. It was cold, which was the perfect excuse to get nice and cozy. Johnny’s sister called while we were up there and asked if we were cuddling (*cue nervous laughter*).

And after that date, and just a week after meeting him, it was official: I was falling for Johnny.

Money it took to fall in love: $15

So if you’re thinking about spending a ton on your significant other this Valentine’s Day, DO IT! He/She is probably worth it. But just remember that it isn’t necessary.

How much money did it take for you to fall in love? And, no, we’re not soliciting mail-order brides (but we’re dying to hear that story if you’ve got it!). So let’s hear your stories!

34 Comments

Aww, too cute. I would say that it cost Mr. PoP and I pretty much nothing to fall in love, too, since we lived just a few doors down from one another in the dorm and had classes together freshman year. But Mr. PoP thinks it was pretty expensive to woo me since we didn’t actually get together until we both took time away from campus (me studying abroad, him traveling for a year) and realized how much we missed one another when we didn’t see each other all the time.

College dating can be very inexpensive! The first few times we hung out together were a game night with friends ($0), playing ping pong in the activity center ($0), a meal in the dining hall ($0 to us), watching Firefly on DVD ($0), and a real date out at CPK ($30?). Kyle also bought me two dozen roses for Valentine’s Day when we were dating-but-not-yet-official. Over the full 7 months it took us to get to “I love you” it probably only added up to one or two hundred bucks! What else can you do when you barely have any income?

Seriously! It’s incredible to look back and see how creative we got with entertaining ourselves when we were college students. It sounds like you two were just like us when it came to falling in love on the cheap!

Our love story involves many rendezvous in college in the School of Music talking, flirting and laughing (cost: $0). He was a Music Ed major and I was a work study student in charge of checking students into and out of practice rooms. The first date involved watching the sunset on the longest day of the year back in 2006 (cost: $0) followed by two slices of pizza (cost: $7).

Well, the first few times the Mr and I met were at group hangouts like you, so no money there. The biggie for me was actually something I found out later, if that makes sense. The first time we went to pick up food together it was a take-n-bake pizza. I asked what kind he wanted, he said anything is fine. I said OK, chicken and mushroom sound good? He said sure. I later found out that he hates, hates, hates mushrooms but said yes because its what I wanted. It made me feel so special and like he really wanted me happy (I now use that against him when he whines about me putting mushrooms into things I cook, lol)

Nice story! Ours was on the other end of the extreme as my wife and I dated long distance. Thankfully it only lasted for four months, because it did not take me long to realize that she was the one for me.

This is an awesome post! J and I spent very little when we first dated, because we lived in a hot and sunny area and we met in the summer so we spent a lot of time at the beach and going for drives. It was fun!

You remember the important details, Rob, which is very preferable to our generation! Our poor children will have access to way too many details of our younger days thanks to Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc…. and for the most part, I don’t know if that’s a good thing!! 😉

And there aren’t many people who have been with someone for 45 years… yours is a true love story. <3

It’s always interesting hearing how other couples met and fell in love. I met my wife in high school so it was virtually free for us to fall for one another… We were broke teenagers. I’m actually posting the story of how we met next Wednesday.

As I was reading this, I started reminiscing about how my husband and I met (through my blog!) and how giddy we were (still are, sometimes 😛 )
And of course, he texted me while I was reading this! He must have known I was thinking about him. Thank you for the trip down memory lane.

What a great story! Rick and I were kind of like that too – meeting unexpectedly and then talking for hours and learning “Hey, I really like you”. We were married 8 months later. Thanks for sharing a wonderful and heart-melting story.

Love your story!! So sweet
It cost my husband rent–we’ met through mutual friends and when he learned I was a leasing agent at an apartment community he realized just happened to need a new apartment…unfortunately for him it was a luxury apartment, and rent wasn’t cheap! I got him a unit in a great location though…you know, just in case things happened to work out with this guy 😉

Sooo cute! You both look so young and different in the photo. Crazy how time flies. It cost my husband and I 10 postage stamps, a bus ticket, and a weeklong bicycle trip across New England to fall in love!

Take Your Shoes Off, Please

Hey, stranger! We’re Joanna and Johnny (and Sally). You can guess who's who. We’ll show you that normal people can figure this money stuff out by sharing our own journey. Because believe us — if we can figure this crap out, anyone can. And it all starts with a budget.

Friends? Maybe?

Keeps the Lights On

Kinda Popular Posts

Dewey Decimal System

Dewey Decimal System

Join our secret email list

We love to get in touch with our readers directly via email. It's like having pen pals, except we don't use pens and we're not in elementary school anymore.

So if you're interested in hearing from us a couple times a month about stuff we're digging, budgeting tips, and other money-related hacks, sign up below!

Join Us on Facebook

A Friendly Disclaimer

We are not financial professionals, but we play one on TV. Actually, that's a lie. All advice is offered as opinion and could very well be wrong. In other words, we're only responsible for your success, not your failures. If this is a medical emergency, hang up the Internet and dial 911.